East Ventures releases Digital Competitiveness Index 2025, highlighting Indonesia’s growing digital competitiveness

East Ventures, a pioneering and leading sector-agnostic venture capital firm in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, together with Katadata Insight Center, launched the East Ventures — Digital Competitiveness Index (EV-DCI) 2025 report. Marking its sixth edition since its debut in 2020, through this report, East Ventures continues to map Indonesia’s digital landscape and competitiveness. With the theme “Driving AI and innovation to enhance Indonesia’s digital competitiveness”, this year’s report presents the latest insights and data that are instrumental in shaping the future of Indonesia’s digital landscape and highlighting innovations that drive meaningful change.

“East Ventures’ objective has always been the same since the first time we initiated this report: delivering insights and rigorous analysis of the impact of digital economic development throughout the archipelago, fostering inclusiveness and equal distribution of economic opportunities for all Indonesians. This year’s report reveals a consistent positive development, underlining the ongoing expansion of Indonesia’s digital economy. It is encouraging to see that several provinces from the frontier, outermost, and least developed regions are now demonstrating strong upward trends,” said Willson Cuaca, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at East Ventures. 

The EV-DCI 2025 provides data on digital competitiveness in 38 provinces and 157 cities/regencies in Indonesia. The reports from 2020 to 2025 show consistent improvement in interprovincial digital competitiveness, as reflected by the EV-DCI 2025 score of 38.8. This score has increased from previous years, which were 38.1 (2024), 37.8 (2023), and 35.2 (2022). The most significant improvements seen in this year’s reporting are the increased percentage of workers using the internet and the expansion of 3G and 4G coverage in villages. The digital divide between regions also continues to narrow, reflecting a steady progress toward greater regional digital equity.

The top 10 provinces with high index scores are still dominated by provinces in Java, with DKI Jakarta and West Java having consistently ranked first and second place over the past five years. Among the top 10 provinces, Banten experienced the most significant performance improvement. Sequentially, the top 10 provinces are: (1) DKI Jakarta, (2) West Java, (3) Banten, (4) East Java, (5) DI Yogyakarta, (6) Bali, (7) Riau Islands, (8) East Kalimantan, (9) Central Java, and (10) North Sumatra. Moreover, the report also highlights the score improvement in 34 provinces, including Papua, which recorded the most significant increase in the EV-DCI score, climbing 14 positions from 34th to 20th. This improvement was partly driven by the region’s strong economic growth, which reached 7.8% in 2024, surpassing the national growth rate of 5.0%

The spread or difference between the highest (DKI Jakarta—78.4) and lowest (Highland Papua—21.6) provincial scores for EV-DCI 2025 is 56.9, which is smaller than the previous year’s 60.4 in 2024. Notably, the average score improvement among provinces ranked 11th to 38th exceeded the top 10, suggesting that previously underperforming provinces are beginning to close the gap with digitally leading provinces. This trend reflects a broader trend toward more inclusive and equitable digital economic development nationwide. 

Accelerating the digital ecosystem and Artificial Intelligence (AI) utilization in Indonesia

Indonesia’s digital ecosystem is expanding rapidly, fueled by innovation and the adoption of advanced technologies such as AI, IoT, blockchain, and 5G. These technologies are key enablers of digital transformation, helping to boost productivity and supporting more thoughtful decision-making. By 2024, total investment in AI-driven startups in Indonesia had reached US$542.9 million, growing 141.5% from 2020 to 2024.

Aligning with the vision of Golden Indonesia 2045, East Ventures takes an active role in driving growth through strategic initiatives and investments. From an investment standpoint, East Ventures partnered with SEEDS Capital and committed S$300 million to develop deep tech companies in Singapore; a move expected to generate a multiplier effect across the region, including Indonesia.

Beyond regional investment, East Ventures plays a key role in advancing digital inclusion and AI adoption through its initiatives, like IndoBuild AI, and portfolio companies, such as:

• Xendit has processed 350 million+ financing transactions by embedding AI for fraud detection and service automation.
• Komunal has disbursed Rp10.6 trillion in MSME loans; AI accelerates and simplifies credit scoring.
• Stockbit is using AI as a co-pilot to support companies in developing products and services.
• Mekari supports the digitalization of 30,000+ MSMEs with AI-based accounting, tax, HR, and CRM solutions.
• Meeting.ai improves administrative efficiency for 300,000+ users through automation.

Indonesia continues to work toward a more inclusive and sustainable digital economy by enhancing its digital competitiveness, promoting AI adoption in line with national priorities, strengthening the digital ecosystem, and expanding equitable access to digital opportunities across all regions. Achieving this requires collaboration among the government, the private sector, communities, and society.

“We believe this report serves as a compass, providing strategic direction for Indonesia’s continued digital evolution. We are confident in our collective ability to build a bright future for Indonesia’s digital economy, where inclusive development creates lasting value for all Indonesians,” Willson added.

About East Ventures – Digital Competitiveness Index 2025 score

EV-DCI 2025 measures the digital competitiveness of 38 provinces and 157 cities/regencies across Indonesia, including the four new provinces established during the 2022 regional expansion. This marks the third consecutive year that the index has included all 38 provinces. For these new provinces, data was aggregated from existing cities/ regencies according to EV-DCI indicators, as provincial-level data was not yet available, the same method has been consistently applied since the 2023 EV-DCI report.

This index consists of three indexes: Input, Output, and Support. Each sub-index is built on three pillars, resulting in nine pillars that form the foundation of the EV-DCI. These nine pillars are represented by 50 indicators, with each pillar consisting of three to nine indicators.

The EV-DCI 2025 report can be downloaded at east.vc/DCI.